This is my “God Hates Bags” canvas tote from Revel and Riot. There was no way in hell I was going to post a fucking Phelps sign. This bag stands for “Fuck You WBC.”

At this point we shouldn’t be surprised by anything the Westboro Baptist Church does, says, threatens or the like. While the Constitution protects their right to says what they want and picket as they please, the fact remains that they are not a good group of people. In fact, they are very, very bad. They are the worst, and I do not make an apology for having this opinion nor for stating it.

Shortly after the world found out about the horrendous tragedy that took place in Newtown, CT this past Friday, Shirley Phelp-Roper, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, took to her Twitter page to announce that she and the rest of her completely unstable and heartless crew will be picketing the funerals of those murdered in the massacre:

“Westboro will picket Sandy Hook Elementary School to sing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment.”

What the fucking fuck?

I’m not even going to try to process this or come up with an answer because as Nietzsche said,

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

I do not want to be a monster; the world has enough monsters. But at least the good out number the bad and in that we can find at least a bit of solace.

In response to Phelps and her [insert a shit ton of over the top euphemisms right here that may not even exist yet] promise to picket, the “hacktivist” group Anonymous decided to fuck with the Westboro Baptist Church. How does a “hacktivist” group fuck with a bunch of lunatics wielding “God Hates Fags” signs? By getting all the personal information of their members and releasing it to the public.

This is not the first time Anonymous has tried to take down WBC; it has been an ongoing task and one that has been renewed with this new promise of picketing the funerals of the TEACHERS, HEROS and CHILDREN who were so ruthlessly murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary. Anonymous released this statement shortly after the hacking (or at least someone claiming to be part of the group):

“Just hacked Westboro’s site. Freedom of speech is one thing. But freedom to hate is another. A domain such as “godhatesfags.com should not exist despite rumblings of members picketing Sandy Hook. Those families have enough anguish to deal with.”

And yes, this is completely true. But we’re also dealing with a church that thrives off of any publicity (a fact that made me hesitant to even write this post). So, while their members may be up all night getting anonymous calls — or non-anonymous calls — from people telling them to go fuck themselves, they’re probably reveling in it as only a true sociopath would. I do not want to imagine what that reveling may entail, but it probably involves monkey feces and talking to the multiple voices in their heads who are probably all named Bob.

However, is Anonymous’ revenge tactic a good one? Is it going to make anyone feel any better about what happened this past Friday? Sure, some of the WBC members might be inconvenienced, may even have to change their number, but ultimately it won’t do a damn thing. Internet high-five to Anonymous for their reasons behind it, but at the end of the day, those lives are gone, families have been destroyed and yet another place that thought itself not within the grasp of such things has had its innocence stolen.

You can’t repair that level of destruction by posting someone’s cell phone number online; you can’t undo the damage done with a home address on the Internet for all to see, just as you can’t make some sort of statement by standing outside the funeral of a six-year-old claiming it was God’s work. No one is right; and although revenge feels really great at first, it just ends up being futile.

What happened on December 14th in Newtown, CT will never be forgotten. But the attempts on the part of the WBC to make some sort of proclamation, will be forgotten. They will be forgotten, because we will choose to forget them; they do not get to be remembered, and the same goes for Anonymous’ actions in response to WBC. Sure, thanks to that list, we can call every single one of those members and scream until we’re blue in the face, plead with them to have a heart and understand the tragedy that has occurred, but that, too, will not be remembered. Monsters who have been brain-washed no longer have the ears to hear; I’ve heard that’s the first to go before their eyes and tongue, respectively.

What we need to remember is the tragedy, the lives lost and the courage of those who stared evil in the face and lost. We don’t need to fight against vacant entities who don’t have the necessary pulse to bleed, mourn or feel despair.